London’s Recycling Crisis – and How the Next Mayor Can Fix it

Some councils, like this one, ask for all recyclable goods in the same bin.

All the candidates for the 2016 London mayoral elections have talked about their ideas for dealing with the housing crisis, air pollution, congestion, terrorism and extremism. But what has often been forgotten about in the media coverage is that London also has a waste crisis.

The capital is the worst performing region in England when it comes to household recycling. (Waste policy for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is devolved.) In 2015, the recycling rate in England as a whole was 44% – London was the only region with a rate below 40%. Out of 33 boroughs, 25 have household recycling rates between 20% and 40%.

This means that, as far as the capital’s waste is concerned, more is sent to landfill or is incinerated, compared to other English regions.

There is no obvious reason why London should be doing particular badly compared to the rest of the country. Certainly there are reasons that are not specific to London but this can be put down to the differences between the household collection services offered by different local councils.